The practice of covering an interior wall or an exterior wall for aesthetic purposes (i.e. stone, brick, wood panels, tile, etc.) has traditionally involved standard masonry, carpentry, or finishing practices, where a stone mason, carpenter, or other finisher arranges stones, bricks, wood panels, tile or other decorative features onto the wall and sets them in place using mortar, paste, adhesive or nails. The process of arranging and adhering this facade, which may include random shapes and sizes, is tedious and requires substantial skill. As a result, attempts have been made to simulate such a trade using less expensive materials and less labor-intensive methods. One such attempt involves constructing a wall from concrete. The concrete may be molded to the shape of stone, bricks, tile, wood panels or other decorative feature. Another such example includes manually texturing the concrete before it cures. One problem with using concrete is that concrete tends to have a substantially smooth texture, unlike natural stone or brick. Another disadvantage with such concrete walls is that solid concrete is also extremely heavy.
In other attempts, wall facades have been manufactured from synthetic resins, such as a plastic, fiberglass, or styrene foams, which are formed to conform with the outer shape of the products to provide an appearance of masonry, carpentry, or other finishes. While plastic and styrene resin foams are light in weight and inexpensive to manufacture, their use is an environmental concern because they are not perishable and do not naturally decompose in landfills. Furthermore, these plastic facades are generally bulking and brittle.
One alternative material to plastics, which has been found to be suitable for use in packing or cushioning material, is a molding prepared from a mixture of water and paper, form a fibrous pulp slurry. The fibrous pulp slurry can be molded into finished articles having a plurality of contoured shapes. Such molded member are relatively inexpensive to produce in large quantities, are biodegradable, and are easy to work with. Accordingly, the use of such molding processes for faux facades is highly desirable.
Molded members formed from a fibrous slurry, such as a pulp slurry, are typically produced by the process of matting the slurry fibers onto one side of a forming die by first inserting the die into the slurry. A vacuum is then applied in such a manner that the water held in the slurry passes through a screen having perforations and through channels in the die. As a result, a layer of wet fibers deposited on the die surface is left, and after sufficient water has been drawn to obtain the required thickness of the fiber layer, the die is removed from the slurry. The formed molded article can then be removed from the forming die, and then the molded member can be dried for further finishing, including die cutting, and packaging.
One problem associated with producing large molded articles from a fibrous slurry, such as a wall covering panel member, is the need to prevent warping that may prevent the panel member from looking like a realistic faux surface. Furthermore, there is a need to have the wall covering panel member edges and other elements line up as perfectly as possible during assembly. Therefore, improved die cutting is required in order to eliminate warpage, expansion and shrinkage as much as possible.